Selected Podcast
Survivorship Care: Support & Resources for Cancer Survivors After Treatment
Survivorship care supports cancer survivors after their treatment ends, offering resources for ongoing symptoms and side effects with a focus on health and wellness.
Featured Speaker:
Sara Linder-Hittle, DNP, APRN-FNP-C
Sara Linder-Hittle is a nurse practitioner and clinical manager of Bryan Cancer Program survivorship and support services. Transcription:
Survivorship Care: Support & Resources for Cancer Survivors After Treatment
Melanie Cole (Host): Survivorship care supports cancer survivors after their treatment ends, offering resources for ongoing symptoms and side effects with a focus on health and wellness.
Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Sara Linder-Hittle. She's a nurse practitioner and clinical manager of Bryan Cancer Program Survivorship and Support Services. She's here to tell us about survivorship care.
Sara, thank you so much for joining us. I feel like survivorship care is a relatively new term or a relatively new aspect of care for cancer survivors. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means, survivor, in terms of cancer and what exactly survivorship care is?
Sara Linder-Hittle: A survivor is any individual that has been diagnosed with cancer. So, a person is considered a survivor from the time they are diagnosed through the end of life. So, there are many types of survivors. There's those living with cancer and those who are cancer-free.
There have been a lot of advances in cancer care in the recent years with earlier detection and people getting more screenings, better treatments for cancer. The number of cancer survivors has grown a lot and it will continue to grow. This year, there are about 8 million men and 10 million women who are cancer survivors in the US.
Survivorship care through Bryan Cancer Program starts after the patient's cancer treatment has ended. We offer support and resources to patients to help with the late and long-term side effects of cancer or effects from treatments that were received. Some of the side effects can linger or be long-term while other effects don't show up for months. Sometimes, some of the side effects don't show up for years after treatment has ended, and we call those late-term effects. Our overall focus in survivorship care is to help you feel your best after having cancer.
Melanie Cole (Host): Well, thank you for that. So Sara, how do you identify the needs of these cancer survivors? What are some of those late and long-term effects that you just mentioned?
Sara Linder-Hittle: So when a patient comes into see us, I'm going to do a risk screening of all the different side effects of cancer and its treatments. It's going to be very personalized for each survivor, and dependent on the cancer and the treatment that they receive during their course of care. Some of those side effects include things like fatigue, swelling, weakness or numbness in extremities, brain fog or memory issues, anxiety, depression, increased stress levels. Some issues with body image. Your body goes through a lot of changes during cancer care. We look at therapies and how can we help you build strength and mobility. We're talking to you about finances, any future plans that you have, anything else that we can be helping with, but really concentrating on wellness and health.
Melanie Cole (Host): So then, what are some ways survivorship care can really help people? Tell us about the key elements of that program as you're talking about and you gave these all mentions—helping with finances, surveillance for recurrence, assessment, management of side effects, emotional, psychosocial— all of those things go into this. Tell us a little bit about how your team works with the survivor. How does this all come together to help them? What's an appointment like?
Sara Linder-Hittle: A cancer diagnosis is life-changing for most people, so it affects you mentally, spiritually, physically, even after your treatment is done. It's similar to caring for a patient with any other chronic condition, especially if you are on long-term therapies.
Survivorship care is very individualized. So when you come in for an appointment, what you can expect is an assessment of all of the side effects or late-term effects that can come from cancer and its treatments. I'll provide you with a survivorship care plan or treatment summary. It will put all of your treatment from the time you were diagnosed, all the care that you received during cancer care and any follow-up recommendations for cancer prevention and surveillance all in one spot for you. We also talk about recommendations for healthy lifestyle and resources to manage side effects, symptoms and referrals to specific specialists if they're needed.
We then take that survivorship care plan and share it with your primary care provider, your oncology team, and any other specialist that is working with that patient, so everybody knows what's going on, what has happened, and how to care for that patient moving forward.
Melanie Cole (Host): What a comprehensive program that is. Really special too, because it's the navigation that sometimes is so difficult for people living with cancer as they're going through their treatments, navigating all of those other things that you mentioned is so difficult. Now, one thing you mentioned is obviously finances and such. Is survivorship care covered by insurance, Sara? How does that part work?
Sara Linder-Hittle: Yes, it is covered by insurance. It's covered like any other doctor visit that you would go to. I am a nurse practitioner, so it would be like visiting a primary care office or any other office nurse practitioner. If you have any questions about that, you can always call us and we can help determine if your plan is covering this care.
Melanie Cole (Host): How long does the care go on, Sara?
Sara Linder-Hittle: Well, your first visit with survivorship care, that initial visit, is an hour-long visit. After that first visit, we like to follow up with you every year or annually. The subsequent visits are not usually as long, but we want to see you every year and make sure that you're not having additional side effects, any other late-term effects that might come up later, and that your surveillance is on track, that you're getting in for your screenings, any follow-up lab work, and nothing's falling through the cracks.
Melanie Cole (Host): It really follows cancer survivors through the course of their life. So, what's the next step? How can a person who's completed their cancer treatment get an appointment? How do they start?
Sara Linder-Hittle: If you have completed your cancer treatment, you can talk to your doctor, your medical oncologist, see if survivorship care is right for you. Or you can also call us at our cancer program line. We have one number that you can call and ask questions or get scheduled with us. It's 402-481-7900.
If you or a loved one has gone through cancer treatment, give us a call if you have any questions about survivorship care or any other care or issues related to your cancer care. We're here for you. You can call that cancer program line and we'll direct you to the right person.
Melanie Cole (Host): Thank you so much, Sara, for sharing this wonderful resource for cancer survivors. And to learn more about Bryan's Cancer Survivorship care, you can visit bryanhealth.org/survivorship, or you can call 402-481-7900. And I'd like to thank our Bryan Foundation partners, Medica and Sampson Construction, for making this podcast possible.
That concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Bryan Health Podcasts. Until next time, I'm Melanie Cole.
Survivorship Care: Support & Resources for Cancer Survivors After Treatment
Melanie Cole (Host): Survivorship care supports cancer survivors after their treatment ends, offering resources for ongoing symptoms and side effects with a focus on health and wellness.
Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Sara Linder-Hittle. She's a nurse practitioner and clinical manager of Bryan Cancer Program Survivorship and Support Services. She's here to tell us about survivorship care.
Sara, thank you so much for joining us. I feel like survivorship care is a relatively new term or a relatively new aspect of care for cancer survivors. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means, survivor, in terms of cancer and what exactly survivorship care is?
Sara Linder-Hittle: A survivor is any individual that has been diagnosed with cancer. So, a person is considered a survivor from the time they are diagnosed through the end of life. So, there are many types of survivors. There's those living with cancer and those who are cancer-free.
There have been a lot of advances in cancer care in the recent years with earlier detection and people getting more screenings, better treatments for cancer. The number of cancer survivors has grown a lot and it will continue to grow. This year, there are about 8 million men and 10 million women who are cancer survivors in the US.
Survivorship care through Bryan Cancer Program starts after the patient's cancer treatment has ended. We offer support and resources to patients to help with the late and long-term side effects of cancer or effects from treatments that were received. Some of the side effects can linger or be long-term while other effects don't show up for months. Sometimes, some of the side effects don't show up for years after treatment has ended, and we call those late-term effects. Our overall focus in survivorship care is to help you feel your best after having cancer.
Melanie Cole (Host): Well, thank you for that. So Sara, how do you identify the needs of these cancer survivors? What are some of those late and long-term effects that you just mentioned?
Sara Linder-Hittle: So when a patient comes into see us, I'm going to do a risk screening of all the different side effects of cancer and its treatments. It's going to be very personalized for each survivor, and dependent on the cancer and the treatment that they receive during their course of care. Some of those side effects include things like fatigue, swelling, weakness or numbness in extremities, brain fog or memory issues, anxiety, depression, increased stress levels. Some issues with body image. Your body goes through a lot of changes during cancer care. We look at therapies and how can we help you build strength and mobility. We're talking to you about finances, any future plans that you have, anything else that we can be helping with, but really concentrating on wellness and health.
Melanie Cole (Host): So then, what are some ways survivorship care can really help people? Tell us about the key elements of that program as you're talking about and you gave these all mentions—helping with finances, surveillance for recurrence, assessment, management of side effects, emotional, psychosocial— all of those things go into this. Tell us a little bit about how your team works with the survivor. How does this all come together to help them? What's an appointment like?
Sara Linder-Hittle: A cancer diagnosis is life-changing for most people, so it affects you mentally, spiritually, physically, even after your treatment is done. It's similar to caring for a patient with any other chronic condition, especially if you are on long-term therapies.
Survivorship care is very individualized. So when you come in for an appointment, what you can expect is an assessment of all of the side effects or late-term effects that can come from cancer and its treatments. I'll provide you with a survivorship care plan or treatment summary. It will put all of your treatment from the time you were diagnosed, all the care that you received during cancer care and any follow-up recommendations for cancer prevention and surveillance all in one spot for you. We also talk about recommendations for healthy lifestyle and resources to manage side effects, symptoms and referrals to specific specialists if they're needed.
We then take that survivorship care plan and share it with your primary care provider, your oncology team, and any other specialist that is working with that patient, so everybody knows what's going on, what has happened, and how to care for that patient moving forward.
Melanie Cole (Host): What a comprehensive program that is. Really special too, because it's the navigation that sometimes is so difficult for people living with cancer as they're going through their treatments, navigating all of those other things that you mentioned is so difficult. Now, one thing you mentioned is obviously finances and such. Is survivorship care covered by insurance, Sara? How does that part work?
Sara Linder-Hittle: Yes, it is covered by insurance. It's covered like any other doctor visit that you would go to. I am a nurse practitioner, so it would be like visiting a primary care office or any other office nurse practitioner. If you have any questions about that, you can always call us and we can help determine if your plan is covering this care.
Melanie Cole (Host): How long does the care go on, Sara?
Sara Linder-Hittle: Well, your first visit with survivorship care, that initial visit, is an hour-long visit. After that first visit, we like to follow up with you every year or annually. The subsequent visits are not usually as long, but we want to see you every year and make sure that you're not having additional side effects, any other late-term effects that might come up later, and that your surveillance is on track, that you're getting in for your screenings, any follow-up lab work, and nothing's falling through the cracks.
Melanie Cole (Host): It really follows cancer survivors through the course of their life. So, what's the next step? How can a person who's completed their cancer treatment get an appointment? How do they start?
Sara Linder-Hittle: If you have completed your cancer treatment, you can talk to your doctor, your medical oncologist, see if survivorship care is right for you. Or you can also call us at our cancer program line. We have one number that you can call and ask questions or get scheduled with us. It's 402-481-7900.
If you or a loved one has gone through cancer treatment, give us a call if you have any questions about survivorship care or any other care or issues related to your cancer care. We're here for you. You can call that cancer program line and we'll direct you to the right person.
Melanie Cole (Host): Thank you so much, Sara, for sharing this wonderful resource for cancer survivors. And to learn more about Bryan's Cancer Survivorship care, you can visit bryanhealth.org/survivorship, or you can call 402-481-7900. And I'd like to thank our Bryan Foundation partners, Medica and Sampson Construction, for making this podcast possible.
That concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Bryan Health Podcasts. Until next time, I'm Melanie Cole.